Man died from picking his nose

Ian Bothwell, 63, suffered a serious nose-bleed because of his habit and died as a result.

Nigel Meadows, Manchester coroner, said: "There is no explanation for this death other than he died from a nose-bleed, consistent with picking his nose. I do not think for a moment he knew what he was doing was going to cause his death." He recorded a verdict of misadventure.

A pathologist concluded that Mr Bothwell, who suffered from dementia brought on by alcoholism, had picked his nose so much that it had caused him to bleed to death.

His body was found by John Edwards, the manager of the Royal Court block of flats in Ladybarn near Didsbury, Manchester - where Mr Bothwell lived alone - on September 5.

Mr Edwards told the inquest: "I thought he must have fallen out of bed and hit his head but it was obvious he was almost certainly dead." But Dr Emyr Benbow, the consultant who carried out the post mortem at Manchester Royal Infirmary, said he could find no evidence that a bang to Mr Bothwell's head had contributed to his death.

The only place he found any contributory evidence was inside Mr Bothwell's nasal cavity, which was full of blood. Dr Benbow told the inquest: "The nasal cavity was filled with blood. My conclusion is that the most likely cause of death is epistaxis, the technical term for a nose-bleed. "The most common cause of epistaxis is picking the nose and I believe that is likely to be what happened."